The Soldier Breathed and Death Cried
by ShadowMist
Summary: A mission has gone terribly wrong and Heero is missing...perhaps dead?


Disclaimers: Not mine, not yours but think of all the fun we'd have if  
they were!  
  
Warning: Not betaded. Run-on sentences gallore. Rough draft subject  
to change at any time. Slight YAOI (if you don't know what that is   
then don't read). This is the first story I ever completed and that only cause Duo hit me up side the head with this in the middle of writing another story which should have been first but...ah, well. ^_^ Please leave comments. Now, on with the show.  
  
  
  
  
The Statue Breathed And Death Cried  
  
  
  
  
The battle was in full swing. Heero blocked the Leo arm intended for  
his head. With a maniacal laugh that even Duo found unnerving he   
sliced through the mere metal of the Leo suit attacking him. A sharp tug from  
behind and the sudden beeping from the console made him turn quicky. A  
Cancer suit! He had gotten too near the water.   
  
Heero slashed the cancer into non-existance. The light on his console  
continued its insistant beeping. He looked down on it and cursed. One  
of his fuel/energy lines had been severed. That must have been the  
sharp tug he had felt.  
  
Quickly, hands flying over the controls, he tried to shut it off and  
reroute its flow before he lost too much power and became immobile. So  
intent on his task was he that he never saw the blazing line of fire  
headed straight for him.  
  
Quatre was knocked down by the explosion. Struggling with his gundam   
He managed to turn far enough to see. Where Wing Gundam had stood but a  
moment before now blazed an inpenetrable wall of fire.   
  
:Heero! N-noooo!:  
  
A flash of black from his right. Too late he reached out a gundanium  
arm and captured only air. :Duo!: With anguished haste he turned   
back to the fire knowing, just knowing, that what he would see would be the  
fire consuming a second victim: Deathscythe.   
  
What he saw instead made him collapse with relief. Trowa had managed   
To catch Deathscythe's left arm and when Duo had saught to strike him with  
his thermal scythe in order to free himself Wufei had intervened by  
clamping his dragon onto Duo's right arm even though he stood over a   
100 feet away. Between them Heavyarms and Nataku managed to hang on to the  
wildly struggling form.  
  
Belatedly Quatre turned on his internal speakers.  
  
"Let me go. Let me go. I have to save him. He's still alive. Dammit  
you bastards. LET ME GO! Heero! Heero. Heeeeeerrrooooooooo-"  
  
  
*****************************************  
  
  
Duo tossed restlessly in his sleep. Quatre shook his head.   
  
"How can the nightmares be getting through the tranquilizers?"  
  
Only with Trowa and Wufei restraining the struggling pilot had Quatre  
managed to inject him  
  
"Heero. Heero. No. Noooooo!"   
  
The cry of anguish coming from the fitfully tossing form rebroke Quatre's  
heart. He started to cry again though his poor eyes and nose were  
already sore from previous tears.  
  
The sound of the door opening had him hastily wiping at his eyes. A  
tall, silent figure blocked the light coming from the hallway; dark  
brown hair barely visible. Quatre's breath caught. Could it be-?  
  
"Quatre, we pumped enough sedative into him to keep him out for a   
couple of days. You need rest. Why don't you go to bed?"  
  
As Quatre recognized the voice his hope died. He slumped back into the  
chair he had moved near Duo's bed. "Trowa, I can't. Someone  
should be here. He's so...heart broken. I'm afraid to leave him   
alone. He shouldn't be alone."  
  
"Fine. Then I'll take over. Or maybe Wufei would be willing -" he  
stopped at Quatre's head shake.  
  
"You and Wufei are worse off than I am. Not only did you fight OZ but  
you had to fight Duo as well. And I'm not sure which caused the most  
damage. I'm surprised Wufei's gundam didn't go up in flames (he choked  
back a sob) too after that...hit by that Leo." Quatre took a deep  
breath, fighting off the horror he had felt on seeing another comrade  
enveloped in flames. "As it is its going to take several week's worth  
of repairs before Nataku is combat ready again."  
  
Trowa nodded stiffly. He also had taken a beating trying to restrain  
and protect the distraught Deathscythe while at the same time trying to  
keep himself alive. The results were a couple broken ribs and several  
nasty looking bruises covering over half his body, and not all taken  
from OZ soldiers. But he didn't blame Duo for any of it. He knew he  
would have reacted the same had it been another in Heero's place.  
  
"If you need anything," he said softly, "call out and I'll hear you."  
  
Quatre smiled up at him, some of his despair lessening. "Thank you."  
  
Trowa left and Quatre returned his gaze to Duo.  
  
"N-nooo," Duo tossed his head. "Heero. No. No. Noooo."  
  
Quatre felt his tears begin to fall anew even as he tried to soothe   
Duo.  
  
:Oh Duo. Duo:  
  
***********************************************  
  
Heeeeeeroooooooooooo!   
  
Duo sat up with a gasp, his head spinning. What in Shinigami's name....  
Duo frowned drowsily as he raised a hand to help keep his head   
attached. What happened? Why do I feel so battered. God. Don't tell me I went and drank a whole bottle of vodka all by myself again.   
  
Baka. But that would explain why I feel so wrung out. Duo raised his  
other arm to help in the support of his head feeling as if it would   
fall off a the least provocation. With a groan he took a tentative look  
around. He was obviously on a bed and, judging by the black comforter  
pooling around his waist, it was his own bed.   
  
::yeay, score one for the God of Death. I made it to the bed::   
  
Duo raised his head a little further. A tall window took up a third of  
the opposite wall with a desk on either side of it. One desk held a neat stack of books and every pen and pencil stood upright in a pencil holder. On the  
opposite desk on the other hand the pencils and pens lay everywhere but  
the holder and any books it should have held lay beneath it scattered   
on the floor.   
  
"Hah, home sweet home." Duo said with a grin.  
  
He was in the room he shared with Heero. Duo frowned. Don't I remember  
something about a mission? How did I get back here?   
  
That's when he noticed Quatre sitting in a chair beside his bed. He had  
obviously fallen asleep while watching over him. But why? OZ.   
Something about OZ. A mission to blow up an OZ base? Did I get hurt? Is that   
why Q-man is here? As far as he could tell all he had were a few bruises.  
What were bruises to the God of Death?   
  
With a wide grin he reached out an arm, intent on waking Quatre, when   
he noticed something weird. There were tear marks on Quatre's face, in  
fact, his whole face looked red and puffy as if it had been an all out,  
no bars held, bawling session. Over a few bruises? Something was wrong  
here.   
  
Duo felt something stirring in the back of his addled memory. An  
indiscribable fear welling up inside of him, panic rising to choke him.  
Desperately he looked around. Where was Heero? Duo leaned forward so he  
could see around Quatre at the other bed in the room. The bed was  
unnoccupied and, judging from the forrest green comforter lying at its  
usual perfect angle, it hadn't been slept in at all. Heero? Where-?   
  
Memory hit him like a fist. Heero! A wall of flames; gundam parts  
crashing to the ground all around them. Heero! Duo curled into a tight  
ball, his arms wrapped around him and began to rock back and forth.  
  
Heero. Surely Heero was OK. Heero was always OK. He would know it if he  
wasn't. After all, wasn't he Death?   
  
Duo shivered at his own thought. Death, yes, he was Death and he would  
know it if he had claimed Heero. But he hadn't and so therefore Heero  
was still alive.   
  
" Heero, where are you? I'll... I'll come find you OK? Just hang on,  
just stay put. Wherever you are I'm coming."   
  
Slowy, careful not to disturb Quatre he slid off the bed. His head  
complained the move but he ignored it. He slowly bent and picked up his  
shoes put didn't but them on. He walked over to the window and eased it  
open. With one last glance at the slumbering Quatre he vanished.   
  
  
******************************************   
  
Where? Where? Duo had been searching for most of the night now. Using  
the explosion sight as ground zero he had quartered a 10 mile radius,  
figureing that a hurt Heero would not be able to cover too much ground.  
Finding no sign of the missing pilot he had gone back and started over  
again, this time doubling the area to 20 miles, then 30 when that had  
failed to produce any results. He knew that 30 miles was too much to  
expect a healthy person to have travel and laughable, had he felt   
like laughing, to expect a seriously hurt and confused Heero to have done  
so. But he refused to give up hope.   
  
With a desperate look he took in his surroundings. This was the last  
quadrant in his 30 mile radius search. If Heero wasn't here...he has to  
be. He is here. I know it.   
  
He cast a glance back the way he had come. Nothing, nothing. The moon  
had come out long ago and though Duo usually loved a full moon tonight  
the sight failed to touch him.   
  
He turned back to the mountain before him. Most of the ground he had  
covered today had been barren, with few trees or hiding places to offer  
shelter to a wounded soldier. Duo stared down at the dark hole in the  
mountain side. Too small to be called a cave it looked more like a   
crack caused by some careless gundam's foot. The small crevice was his last  
hope. Please be here. Please.   
  
Duo pulled the lever that would open Deathscythe's hatch. Silently he  
jumped down and stood contemplating the cave mouth. The moon struggled  
to illuminate the interior for him but failed miserably but 3 feet into  
the blackness. Duo took a step forward then paused. He glanced up at   
his silent gundam then out into the desolate night. Nothing. Not even hope  
out here. He turned back to face the cave. At least this darkness   
offers me familiarity. After all, does not Death often dwell in shadows? Duo  
stepped forward into the cave's maw, the darkness quickly claiming him  
as one of its own.   
  
Outside, unnoticed by the long haired pilot, a splash of red glistened  
as it congealed in the night's chill.   
  
  
*******************************************   
  
  
Too dark. Deciding it would help no one if he ended up with a broken   
leg Duo stopped to create a torch. He tore a strip from his shirt and tied  
it round a small branch that had somehow made its way into the cave.  
Lighting the makeshift torch he moved quickly deeper. He walked for   
What must have been no more than half an hour when he came upon an exit.   
  
Duo frowned. This looked suspiciously like where he had come in. How  
had he gotten turned around? He looked outside. At some point he must  
have gotten lighter or maybe it was just his eyes, accustomed to the  
dark interior of the cave, that immediately saw what he had missed  
earlier. A pool of deeper shadow, shinning as if liquid, with a line of  
footprints leading into the cave. Blood. Duo's torch fell from suddenly  
nerveless fingers.   
  
"I-I must have stepped in it when I came in. Thats Heero's...." He   
shook his head in denial. "It can't be. Where's his body-"   
  
A sudden noise behind him made him whirl, his heart in his throat. He  
searched the darkness desperately, trying to spot the danger. It took  
several precious moments before his eyes adjusted once more to the dark  
interior but when they did a small cry escaped him.   
  
Heero! It was Heero who stood before him. With a small gasp of joy he  
reached out. Then froze. What if it wasn't Heero? There was alot of   
blood out there. Was this really him?   
  
Hesitant, Duo drew back. Heero wasn't moving. Duo felt a small frown  
threatening to escape. He was so still!   
  
Was this some trick from the petty gods above? Had they replaced his  
flesh and blood heart's desire with stone? Did a statue stand in his  
koi's place? He shook his head in denial.   
  
Duo took several steps forward, intent now on reaching his goal. He   
felt his breath quickening in anguish. The gods could not be that cruel.   
This had to be his Heero. It had to be. He reached out a trembling hand,  
determined to touch the impassive face before him and prove to himself  
that he neither dreamed nor hallucinated.   
  
Despite his best intentions his hand froze it hovered, hesistant,   
Above the sculptured cheek, his fingers refusing to touch less despair be  
confirmed.   
  
My Heero. Mine. This IS my Heero, he insisted stubbornly.   
  
With a deep breath Duo forced his hand to touch Heero. As his hand made  
contact he was unable to stop the small sob that escaped him.   
  
  
************************************************  
  
  
Brightness, then nothing. A lifetimes worth of tears claiming him till  
he nearly drowned, then nothing. A journey filled with pain till  
darkness and silence claimed him, then nothing. And Nothing he remained  
for the longest time.   
  
A noise disturbed him and he remembered movement. Death had come and he  
followed. Shadow then light. Weakened moon beams turned skin alabaster.  
Dancing flames created a fiery halo round the figures head. Shadows  
pooled in eyes; the nightsky's stars shinning through. Death reached   
for him.   
  
Heero almost flinched as Death drew near him then stopped, thinking,   
Why should I fear Death? Have I not courted you for so long? Almost since I  
was born you and I have shared an endless waltz where we draw nearer   
and nearer. You take those around me but never touch me: this your subtle  
way of letting me know you are near, always near. I in turn give you my  
enemies, their lives my courting gift. You always take them quickly,  
sometimes too quickly and too eagerly.   
  
//flashback to a little girl in a window, holding a small puppy in her arms.   
A blazing mobile suit falling on her building and burying her inside.//   
  
Yes. I do not fear you. Resent...sometimes....rarely. Love you?  
Sometimes. Maybe.   
  
Death's dark eyes fill with emotion. Fear? Why? You must know I don't  
mean it. I could never hate Death for long, not when Death promises so  
much.   
  
Death reached out to touch him. I will not flinch, I will not flinch.   
  
Warm. Heero's mind filled with wonder. Death was warm.   
  
Death cupped his cheek, his deep midnight eyes searching his face as if  
he would find there the answers to the mysteries that had eluded even  
Death. A sob escaped the perfect lips and moisture shone in His eyes.  
Tears? Why would death be crying?   
  
The incongruity of that thought made his brain kick-start back into  
life. Heero took a sharp breath, his lungs filling desperately as if   
he had ceased to breathe for a time. What the- Heero shook his head and  
groaned. There was a sharp pain localized above his left eyebrow. I  
think I've got a concussion.  
  
He staggered as a figure suddenly threw itself at him arms wrapping  
around him tightly. A head butted under his chin and hid against his  
chest.  
  
Who? Ah, yes, he remembered now. Death had come to claim him at last.  
And if he keeps squeezing my ribs like that he might take me sooner   
Than He intended he thought sourly. The first anguished sob made him forget  
all about his sore ribs. The poor thing sounded like Its heart had broken.  
Heero wrapped his arms around the shaking figure.  
  
"Shhh, Death. Why do you cry? You have finally come for me." Heero  
smiled as the full realization hit him. "I will know peace. I will be  
released from my vows and training. My heart, I am free!"  
Heero threw his head back and laughed. Not the half-hysterical cackle  
he used to daunt his enemies but a true laugh: open, clean and, at   
last, innocent. He hugged Death tighter in joy. Marveling at the warmth  
Death's body created within his arms. Why had he ever thought death  
would be cold? Was not Death the final comforter after all? Of course  
Death would be warm and full of light.  
  
Heero brushed a strand of hair off Death's face and kissed his forehead  
gently.  
  
"Shhh Shi-koi. Stop these tears. Raise your face that I might see   
your beauty once more."  
  
Slowly Death raised Its head from his chest.   
  
"Heero?" The voice was hesitant. "What are you- I mean, you're  
not...nani?"  
  
Heero froze. The figure in his arms was not Death. It was Duo. But  
how? A twinge from the cut at his temple gave him a clue. Had he  
hallucinated the whole thing? Impossible. Death was here. I touched  
Him. He was real. His head began to throb.  
  
Eyes squinted in pain he looked at Duo again. The deep violet eyes   
Were now a shade darker than the night sky as false dawn was quickly chased  
away by true daylight. His hair still called forth the image of a halo  
as the forgotten torch brought out the hidden highlights. His skin was  
pale and glowed slightly in contrast with his dark clothing.  
Duo...Death?  
  
"Heero?" Duo reached up and cupped his cheek, his night colored eyes  
darkening further with renewed concern. At Duo's touch Heero remembers  
Death's touch, the touch which had brought him back to life. How   
ironic the boy who calls himself death brings life instead. Heero felt a   
pang of regret, his never quite silent yearning reawakening with an almost  
physical pain. Death had refused him again.  
  
"Hee-koi, are you ok?"  
  
Heero blinked slowly. Hee-koi? Did Duo just call him Hee-koi?  
  
"Don't worry. I found you." Duo leaned forward then, his lips   
brushing Heero's. What is he doing? A particularly vicious pain shot through   
his head.  
  
"Does it hurt? My poor Hee-chan." Duo pushed himself up on tiptoes,  
his hands resting on Heero's shoulders, and placed a gentle kiss on the  
angry looking wound.  
  
Heero stood still, an image of Death's tear streaked face and his own  
soothing kiss surfacing at Duo's action. Duo pulled back, a satisfied  
smile on his face. "I found you. Just like I promised. I had to   
search all night but I found you. I would have gotten here sooner but the  
others wouldn't let me come."  
  
Wouldn't let him come? In his experience no one stopped Duo Maxwell  
from doing whatever he wanted and he and the others had long stopped  
even trying. Why would they have tried to do so this time? For the  
first time Heero looked, really looked at Duo.   
  
Yes, Duo resembled Death and it was more than just the combination of  
trickster lighting and his own concusion. Duo looked like he belonged  
in a hospital bed. He came looking for me in this state? What had the  
baka been thinking? Heero tightened his grip fearing Duo would fall  
without his support.  
  
"I had to find you. I knew you weren't dead. I just knew it."  
  
Heero frowned as the botched mission came back to him. The cancer  
taking advantage of his turned back to damage his fuel line. The  
missile that had come out of nowhere. The explosion. The BIG   
explosion if his jumbled memories were anything to go by. How had Duo known he  
wasnt dead? He wouldn't have bet on his own survival and in fact began  
to wonder just how had he managed it this time? And how had Duo known  
where to find him?  
  
"I would have searched hell for you," Duo said as if in answer to his  
question. Sometimes it spooked him to see how easily Duo could read  
him. "I knew my heart would lead me to you."  
  
"But why?"   
  
Duo shook his head as if Heero had just proved himself an idiot with  
that question.  
  
"Because, Heero no baka, I love you." With that Duo kissed him, hard.  
Heero was too stunned to pull away. Duo clung to him, his lips bruising  
in their intensity.   
  
Slowly Duo pulled away a small smile trying valiantly to hide the  
sadness in his eyes at Heero's lack of response.   
  
"I have always loved you." Duo carressed his cheek gently. "Always."  
  
Lo-loved him?   
  
"Duo, you can't."  
  
"Can't? But I do. And I have since the first time I met you."  
  
Heero turned away, his emotions churning. He can't, he can't. I'm the  
perfect soldier. No one should love me. My life is too expendable,   
too worthless. He heard Duo sigh.  
  
"It's alright," Duo said from behind him. "You don't have to love me  
back or anything. I know you don't feel that way about me. Hell, I  
know you can barely stand me. To hope that you could find me  
attractive, even just a little, was too much to hope for."   
  
Oh, but Heero did. More than Duo knew. The first time he had seen him  
his blood had stirred. At first Heero had called it anger, finding   
that emotion easier to deal with. But, as Duo continued to stay by him, to  
annoy him with his insistent chatter, he had felt the long haired pilot  
slipping under his skin. Too deep, too deep. As the attraction turned  
into a begrudging affection he had felt something else stirring within  
him, something that had remained frozen and forgotten in the depths of  
his soul for far too long. But Heero had held himself back. He knew   
he had no right to act on his emotions. Not when he was Death's perfect  
soldier.  
  
"Don't worry Heero. I won't bother you with it. I just...I just   
wanted you to know. OK? I thought you should know is all."  
  
Heero shivered. Duo sounded so forlorn. I can't. I shouldn't. I am  
Death's.  
  
Hearing the soft curse and stumble from behind him Heero whirled,  
catching Duo as his legs finally gave out on him. But Duo's weight  
combined with his own injuries prooved too much and he fell to the cave  
floor, Duo craddled in his arms.  
  
"Heh," Duo smiles up at him sheepishly. "Guess I was more tired than   
I thought. Maybe I should take a little nap." With that Duo closed his  
eyes and snuggled into Heero's chest. Heero looked down at him in  
bemusement. He's either a greater actor than I gave him credit for or  
he's acutally asleep. Heero was unsure what to do next. I can't love  
him. I belong to Death.  
  
Raising his hand he slowly brushed Duo's bangs off his face. He felt  
the familiar stirrings as he watched him. I feel for him, even though   
I shouldn't. I can't stop him from affecting me, from getting a rise out  
of me each time, one way or another.   
  
He annoys me so much with his insistent chatter that all I want to do  
is kiss him so deep and for so long that he's left breathless and  
gloriously silent. I want to turn all his precious words into  
incomprehensible moans as I drive him senseless with passion and   
desire. But...I can't. I belong to Death.  
  
Duo stirred restlessly in his arms.   
  
"Heero. Heero. Where?"  
  
Heero felt his heart melting. Leaning forward he gently stroked Duo's  
face. "Shh Duo. I'm here. You found me."  
  
Duo settled down. With a mumbled "mine" he wrapped his arms around  
Heero. Heero froze, then slowy began to smile. He moved so his mouth  
lay directly above Duo's ear.  
  
"Yes, Shi-koi. I am yours. And, finally, you are mine."  
  
Duo awoke with a gasp as Heero's lips claimed him. With a small moan   
of happiness Duo tightened his arms and drew his heart's desire closer.  
  
"Heero. Oh God, Heero. Yes. Yours." Duo finally gave up on words.  
All he could do was moan as the soldier finally claimed Death.  
  



End file.
